The Salt Lake Tribune is one of 50 newsrooms chosen to receive a grant aimed at bolstering reporting of vital under-covered issues.
Report for America, a national service program that helps place talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms, announced its 2019 winners Thursday.
This summer, two Report for America reporters will join The Tribune newsroom. One will cover the status of women in Utah and why women in the Beehive State lag in wages, college graduation rates, political involvement and other important indicators. The other reporter will cover San Juan County, the politics and public lands debates under a new Navajo-majority County Commission.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to accept this honor,” said Tribune Editor Jennifer Napier-Pearce. “Good journalism requires having staff resources — thoughtful, ethical and talented reporters — to tell compelling stories. This grant will allow The Tribune to cover these two subject areas in more depth than we’ve ever been able to before, amplifying underrepresented voices and helping all Utah residents understand some of the unique issues at play in our state.”
Launched in 2017 and donor-financed, Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, an award-winning nonprofit media organization with an established track record of training and supporting teams of emerging journalists around the world and in the U.S.
Now, attention turns to recruiting the two reporters. To apply for the one-year posts at The Tribune and other newsrooms, visit www.reportforamerica.org. The deadline is Feb. 8.
Report for America covers half of a reporter’s salary and the other half is paid for by the news organization as well as local philanthropy. To contribute, please contact Jennifer Napier-Pearce at jnpearce@sltrib.com.
KUER radio is also a 2019 Report for America grant recipient.